Food sufficiency is the first requirement of survival, and the amount of food required by a given population depends upon the aggregate size of the population. Among available food sources, aquatic species can play a significant role. Though advanced fishing techniques and equipment may significantly increase the size of the catch; fishery resources are at the same time are being rapidly depleted. Aquaculture has become a viable alternative to replace shortfalls in the marine catch, and enhancement of aquatic bodies with appropriate nutrients is believed to be a viable alternative for governments and fisheries whom wish to address the growing problem.
In the initial step of aquaculture production, fresh or seawater is directly introduced into an aquaculture pond conditioned to provide a suitable habitat for the fish to thrive. Unfortunately, excrement from the fish and unconsumed feed material contaminate the water in the pond resulting in the propagation of algae, pathogenic and beneficial bacteria, zooplankton and/or phytoplankton, and parasites. Decaying excrements and residual feed generate hazardous gases and threaten fish propagation. As a result, the fish can become infected or die, causing substantial loss to the owner. To avoid this, the owner will periodically filter the water, often using only filtration devices for preliminary filtration. This preliminary filtration does remove certain foreign matter and suspensions from the water; but fails to remove algae, pathogenic bacteria of zooplankton and phytoplankton, parasites and hazardous gases. Making the water in the pond cleaner and providing an optimal living environment for the fish is one of the topics pending satisfactory solution in the aquaculture industry.
Substantial work has been done to improve filtration methods, and in particular, the technology of supplementing beneficial bacteria colonies with improved substrates and devices is known. There are also cultured biological amendments available to improve the ratio of beneficial bacteria in any given system. After such amendments are added to a body of water, the temperature of the entire system may be elevated or lowered to accommodate the growth of the bacteria. Other devices are also available to accommodate the reproductive capabilities of beneficial bacteria, most notably; the improved substrates of recently patented inventions, and further, the addition of feed supplements known in the industry as Microbial Controlled Aquaculture (MCA). MCA provides a substantial basis, but does not describe the inoculation, incubation and delivery technology described herein, nor does it provide the basis for efficient and relevant temperature control studies which focus on the microbial colonization and multiplication as a separate process that requires special temperature or propagation considerations to maximize efficiency and energy conservation. MCA simply feeds the microbes at the prevailing temperature of the system, and assumes that both the bacteria and the target species will benefit.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,082,893 teaches the benefit of biological control in a filtration system, but fails to address the temperature parameters in a meaningful way to reduce the substantial cost of heating or cooling a large body of water. The '893 patent also fails to suggest a significant benefit of the present invention, i.e. to encourage highly intensive reproduction of beneficial organisms, such as beneficial bacteria within the system without significantly raising or lowering the temperature of the system in order to improve the efficiency of filtration. A bacterial culture may or may not thrive at the same temperature as the targeted production species although it might favor certain surfaces to adhere to, and such surfaces can be engineered to accommodate shearing of the bacterial colonies at advantageous sizes. The processes involved in the '893 patent do not suggest the incubation of the bacterial cultures at temperatures other than the system wide parameters.
US Patent publication no. 20060275324 teaches the beneficial effect of probiotic treatments for aquaculture, but instead of generalizing their invention to a convenient incubator that could be globally applied in any body of water, the inventors specifically prevent specific pathogenic bacteria and enhance specific beneficial organisms by selective breeding in presumably sterile conditions, as well as utilizing highly specialized incubators for lab experiments and production. They do not propose the solution of having incubator stations with various probiotic and beneficial organisms provided to an aquaculture system or body of water in a continuous or deliverable manner through a relatively simple and inexpensive technology.
In view of prior technologies, there remains a need for devices and methods that selectively propagate and deliver beneficial organisms to aquatic environments. Furthermore, there exists a need to reduce the stress placed on aquatic environments when cultivating a variety of organism. Still further, the need for strengthening the food web and increasing nutrition at the lowest levels of marine life appears to have substantial significance in the face of population increases versus the amount of arable land and agricultural watershed available worldwide.